The Marine

The reunion had gone well, but Bill hadn’t wanted to bring up his subject in front of so many people. In the end he had decided to ask his dad for help first and hadn’t been let down.

“Yeah, he’s old now. The frame has been restored but the interior will show its age. The best thing about him is he just hasn’t seen much heavy use.”

Inside a massive drydock was a small Marine frigate. It only had eight cannons on either side and two front-facing mortars.

Walking around it’s side, a young Marine Captain asked: “Will it take on water?”

With a shake of the head, the older officer replied: “How could it? This seastone hull was rated for the New World and I’ve revitalized the lumber myself, and anyways son, this is the best you can hope for.”

Nodding his head, Bill knew that was an understatement.

According to Aramaki, this ship had been built less than twenty years ago and had ostensibly only been used on one voyage. It was built for speed and even though it had a carry capacity for 250 sailors, with only three sails, it was small enough that he and a small capable crew could handle it.

Frankly speaking, this ship was everything Bill could have hoped for and was far more then what he thought he was going to get when he asked his father for help getting a ship.

Jumping up on the deck, Aramaki followed Bill has he looked around the inside of the vessel. There were two restrooms in the ship, each of which had a shower facility which surprised Bill because in the other vessels he had been on there had only been salt-water chain toilets.

This had included the HINA, and so Bill asked his father: “There’s freshwater utilities?”

Answering from just behind him, Aramaki smirked: “There sure are, the most expensive part of the ship besides the seastone hull.

Come on, I’ll show you.”

Following Aramaki back to the deck of the ship, he pulled up a latch and pointed down to a dark space.

“There’s one on the other side too” he said pointing over before continuing: “There are two 20-ton tanks on board. More than enough for a ship this size.”  

Bill knew this was true, he had learned a lot about water usage while with Captain Hina and seen himself that 150 sailors would drink about 20 tons of water per month.

Ships were inherently thirsty monsters, and while these tanks could potentially save hours and hours of work, Bill had one crucial question: “How is this cleaned?”

In this world Bill hadn’t found the use of chlorine, that meant water only had a shelf life of a few weeks before it turned rancid. For water stored in barrels this wasn’t an issue because barrels were easily cleaned.

Two massive tanks built into the deck were another matter.

“Well, how would you clean them?” saying this, Aramaki looked at his son before seriously continuing: “You lift them out and get new ones.”

Seeing Bill deadpan, Aramaki laughed and told him to relax. Then after saying to stand back, he reached his hand inside the hold and, after a click, pulled up a panel that had been hidden by the wooden deck.

Pulling somewhat hard, Aramaki revealed a four-by-six-foot opening and said: “You and I are too big to really fit inside, but on the far end” he then pointed towards the ocean side of the tank “there’s another nozzle that will let water out.”

Thoroughly pleased by this, Bill spent the next hour or so surveying the rest of the ship.

There was a medical bay, gun deck, cafeteria, training area, navigator and communication office, Captain and Officers’ quarters, storage pawn, and even a seastone jail cell on the bottommost level of the ship.

Probably, he figured, this ship would need sixty normal Marines to make a full crew.

After all, despite it being a small frigate, it was still a Marine frigate.

Very satisfied the last thing Bill asked before thanking Aramaki was: “What’s his name?”

Looking the ship up and down, Aramaki cut his eyes to his son and with a slight smile said: “This old boy? He was designated ‘Frontier Run’.”

Nodding his head, Bill thought the name was suitable and after talking some about his mother and sisters, he excused himself.

“This is great, thank you dad. I won’t let him go to waste.”

When he said this, Aramaki pulled him in with his left arm over Bills shoulder.

“Now look son, I’m giving you this ship because your only other alternative would probably be some small pirate caravel with an ugly figurehead that would sink after six months of sail, but I’m not giving you any of my officers. Do you understand?”

Saying he understood, Bill had only thought of recruiting from Vallipo as his last-ditch effort and hadn’t planned at all to recruit the men his father needed to run the place.

“Good! Also, try to come back home early tonight. Your mother and I need to speak to you about her Kingdom and your sisters.”

Seeing Bill about to speak, Aramaki, who was still holding him in one arm, cut him off: “No, it’s not so important or urgent that you need to worry about it now. Just try and get home early as you can, ok?”

Nodding again that he understood, Aramaki slapped him on his chest and released his son, after which Bill said his goodbyes and jumped off the deck of the ship.

He didn’t drop on to the dock but instead headed straight up to the bases’ second floor.

The plan was to first recruit Sasha, because he knew then he’d have Ricky.

Ranse and Fia were going to be harder, at least materially. Bill had learned that Ranse had been promoted to Commander not many months before they had met back on Vallipo. He was already in line to have a commissioned ship on his own.

Fia on the other hand could go either way. She had eight years left on her current service contract but like Ranse had done well in her postings, reaching the rank of Lieutenant in two years as a cook was something to take note of.

Thinking this had he made his way to Captain Zima’s residence on the fortresses’ second floor, Bill knocked and was answered by Sasha’s mom.

After greeting the lady, he asked and was told that Sasha and Ricky had gone to the MCT Building a few hours ago but from her understanding they wouldn’t be back until dinner.

Bill thanked Mrs. Zima and made his way to the familiar building where he had learned about the Six Powers and many other things about this world.

The MCT Building was a fully functional training facility. It had weights up to 5000kg, a shooting range, weighted ropes, boxing rings, a medical facility, and a combat arena large enough for most giants to use.

Despite all of this the building didn’t look quite as large as he remembered as he walked inside and looked left and right.

Perhaps it was because he had seen kilometer-sized sea kings or fought giant octopi, but instead of being awed, Bill just walked forward to his target which he found easily enough in the combat arena.

When there were no matches going on, the combat arena was the favorite for swordsmen. Seeing Sasha and Ricky handling their weapons in the large flat area, Bill didn’t call out and instead observed off to the side.

Ricky was making a small whirlwind and he darted to-and-fro, there had been thirty dummies set up and he ran between them with his eyes closed and only barely contacting them with his swords.

An untrained eye would be surprised by the pure speed that he moved, but to Bill, what was most impressive was how Ricky moved the very instant his swords made contact.

Ricky could not summon lighting with his blades yet but had completely unified the Rumble Arts and Wave Step.

Sasha on the other hand seemed to be moving at a turtle’s pace as she outlined various four and eight-point slashes.

Bill figured she was training the Polygonal Arts, which cut at the angles of geometric shapes.

With 500kg weights on both arms she outlined an ‘X’ shaped slash then followed it with a much harder ‘star’ shaped slash. Using a combination of slashes, the center point would always be crossed more than once and for each shape the power would double.

This was the true technique of the Polygonal Arts.

After watching for several minutes, Bill waited for a time for the both of them to finish their set before calling out.

“You’ve gotten a lot better!”

Turning their heads simultaneously, Sasha and spoke out first: “Oh, Bill? I didn’t think I’d see you today.” Then smirking continued: “Here to admit that swords are better than fists?”

Saying this, she sheathed her longsword and despite being covered in 500kg weights casually walked over to him.

Ricky had not been far behind her, but instead of saying something to Bill had chimed in about how unlikely it was that Bill would ever see the light. “He’s even using hammers now!” he had said with a laugh.

Bill didn’t snap back, because it was true that he had started to appreciate the finer aspects of the war hammer.

After all, it was a frightening weapon.

Sure, a sword may kill a person, but a hammer would leave them alive but in agony. People usually didn’t think they would die, but anyone could think about living with the effects of being bludgeoned.

Still, he didn’t justify his new fondness for the weapon and instead laughed along as the two reached him.

They formed a triangle and spoke with Ricky going on about the finer points of the Wave Step.

After some time, Bill brokered the reason he had come by asking them if they could speak somewhere more private.

Looking back and forth, the two readily agreed and they went off to the side of the combat arena to sit in the bleachers.

After Sasha had taken off her weights and sat down, Bill came right out with it: “Look, you know how I told you all yesterday that I made Captain of the Science Division?”

Stopping here, he then continued after they nodded: “Well, here’s the thing, Captains in the Science Division are more like… uh… department heads.

When I became Captain, I actually got put in charge of Procurements.”

Seeing that the two were following along he kept going.

“But for financial reasons even though the commission existed, the role had never been filled. Now I have the commission, but I’m also the only personnel in it.”

After he finished his sentence, Sasha and Ricky looked back and forth before Ricky asked with a slight laugh: “So you became the head of a non-existent department in the Science Division?””

Returning the chuckle with a smile of his own, Bill replied: “It’s more like we’re starting something new. The commission does exist though, so the department is completely legitimate in the eyes of the Marines, and so…” he finally got to it: “I was hoping the two of you would transfer over and join me.”

When he said this, the two narrowed their eyes in slight confusion and seemed to be thinking a bit more seriously.

Ricky was about speak, but Sasha put her hand on his arm and said: “Tell us exactly about the commission you have, also what we’d be walking in to?”

Bill wasn’t at all affected by this question as he had never expected them to sign up without a second thought.

“Well, we do have a ship!” he said with his finger pointed in the air.

After he did this, he put his finger down and clasped his hands for a split second before continuing: “But we don’t have a crew, and there are no wages until we can make some of our own money.”

“You don’t have any Beli, like at all?” Said Ricky wide-eyed.

“How do you intend on operating without money?” Said Sasha in a serious manner.

Nodding his head in indication that he understood their questions, Bill continued: “That’s just for now. A part of my commission gives us the authority to carry out all regular Marine duties and even establish my own laboratory and base.

Plus” he said matter-of-factly “Even though the department doesn’t have money now, I can give out direct promotions to those who I deem qualified.”

After that he gave the two a brief description on how the Science Division ranks worked in relation to Marine HQ and Blue Sea officers and ended with: “So these ranks do carry legitimacy even outside of the normal purview of the Science Division.”

“But they still have lower authority than a similarly ranked Marineford Officer.” Ricky pointed out.

Nodding his head again, Bill just conceded by saying: “Well, except unique situations, Marineford is always going to have higher authority. The Science Division commission does have us outrank the Blue Seas though.”

Ricky shrugged to this, and Sasha asked: “And who did you plan on promoting to Commander in your department?”

Bill had expected this question and decided to just be above board about his intentions.

“If you two join me, I had planed on making you and Ranse my Lieutenant Commanders, Ricky a Lieutenant, and for Fia it depends on what she wanted but I’d offer her the rank of Lieutenant also.

When it comes to the Commander position, I only plan to fill it when my laboratory was settled, and we have enough resources to fund other ships.

In my mind, that will be an administrative role because, eventually” he said with a huff “we’re going to have the Lieutenant Commanders commanding ships, but admittedly that’s a far-off plan.”

During this discussion Bill made sure to use words like ‘we’ instead of ‘I’, because he not only wanted to rope the two in on the idea but also because he knew it was impossible for him to be effective without capable Lieutenants.

Sasha nodded her head and adjusted her longsword, then Ricky asked the obvious question: “It seems like your commission gives you a lot of freedom, and you’re talking like you have some grand plan, but what is the actual job of this department of ‘Procurements’?

What are you having to procure?”

Smiling again, Bill looked at the Duo and said: “Well, simply put, it’s funding.

The Science Division needs money, and as Captain of Procurements, on paper, that is my number one objective.”

“Now at the moment” Bill said, cutting Ricky off: “There’s no set amount of Beli we need to turn in every quarter, or anything specifically even said, but that’s likely going to change depending on Dr. Vegapunks situation.”

“Hmmm…” said Ricky, lost in thought for a moment before looking to Sasha and saying: “Well this does seem better than what Ranse offered us, but what do you think?”

“Wait, what about Ranse?” asked Bill in confusion, not expecting Sasha's answer.

"He offered us a place on his ship, and we had accepted.”